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Gerrit Smith Miller 

An Appreciation 

EDITED BY 
WINTHROP S. SCUDDER 




Dedham, Mass. 
THE NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL 
Supplement to the Nobleman 
MCMXXIV 



Gerrit Smith Miller 



An Appreciation 

EDITED BY 
WINTHROP S. SCUDDER 




Dedham, Mass. 
THE NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL 

Supplement to the Nobleman 
MCMXXIV 



.53 



CONTENTS AND LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Gerrit Smith Miller (photogravure) Frontispiece 

From a photograph in 1923 

Gerrit Smith Miller, a Sketch of His Active Life 7 

By one of his old Team-mates, Dr. Robert Means Lawrence 

The Five Masters 11 

Epes Sargent Dixweir27, George W. C. Noble '58, John P. Hopkinson '60, 
Arthur L. K. Volkmann, Cor, '78, James J. Greenough '82 

The Miller Homestead, Peterboro, New York 12 

The Bronze Tablet in Honor of Mr. Miller 12 

Suggested by the " Ellis" Tablet at Rugby 

History of Rugby Football in England 13 

By G. F, Philip Bussy, of The London Westminster Gazette 

Gerrit Smith Miller, His Athletic Career 16 

By his old Team-mate, James D'Wolf Lovett 

Gerrit Smith Miller at 18 21 

From a photograph in 1863 

The Seven Members of the Oneida Football Team Living 
November 7, 1923 22 

The sixtieth anniversary of the Team's most famous game in 1863. 
Standing: Scudder, Arnold, Peabody. Seated: Bowditch, Lovett, 
Lawrence. Insert: Captain Miller 
From a photograph by Paul Waite 

The Unveiling Exercises 26 

By Laura Elizabeth Wiggins, written for The Nobleman 

The Miller Tablet and Red Chalk Drawing of Mr. Miller 
Unveiled November 7, 1923, by Martha and Susan H. 
Wigglesworth, Two of Mr. Miller's Grand-nieces 27 

The drawing is by Kleber Hall, from the photograph of Mr. Miller 
at 18 

The Right Reverend William Lawrence, Bishop of Massa- 
chusetts, Blessing the Flag to Be Raised on the New 
Flag-pole Given by Mr. Frederick Flood 28 

Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, 
Taking Part in the Ceremonies 



Gerrit Smith miller 



''Defeat with Honor is better 
than Victory with Dishonor'' 



GERPaT SMITH MILLER 



''Rugby School sends congratulations and greetings.'' 

This cablegram from W W. Vaughan, M.V.O., M.A., Headmaster 
of the Rugby School, England, was received by Charles Wiggins, 
2nd, Headmaster of the Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, 
Wednesday, November 7, 1923, during the unveiling of the Bronze 
Tablet to Gerrit Smith Miller. November 7th was selected for the 
dedication as the sixtieth anniversary of the most prominent game 
won by the Oneida Football Club of Boston. 

Such a friendly greeting requires explanation: G. F. Philip Bussy 
of the London Westminster Gazette, wrote for the Boston Transcript of 
Saturday, March 3, 1923, an interesting historical account of the 
origin of the present form of Rugby football. With his article was a 
reproduction of a tablet in Rugby School in honor of a young lad, 
William Webb Ellis, who, in 1823, one hundred years before, had the 
audacity to run with the ball in his arms contrary to Rugby rules, 
thus instituting the most spectacular feature of modern Rugby foot- 
ball. This article suggested the idea of placing a similar tablet in 
the Noble and Greenough School to honor Gerrit Smith Miller, who, 
as a boy of seventeen, a member of Epes Sargent Dixwell's Private 
Latin School, organized The Oneida Football Club of Boston in 1862. 

'The Noble and Greenough School is a lineal descendant of Dix- 
well's through Hopkinson's and Volkmann's. Dixwell's was founded 
in 1851, and continued twenty-one years until 1872, when Mr. Dix- 
well retired. John P. Hopkinson, long a master in Dixwell's, carried 
on the school for twenty-five years until 1897, when he retired. In 
1895, Arthur L. K. Volkmann, a master in Hopkinson's, started an 
offshoot from Hopkinson's which continued twenty-two years, until 
1917, when, on account of faiHng health, his school was merged in 
Noble and Greenough's, founded in 1866 by Mr. Noble. Mr. Green- 
ough, as well as Mr. Volkmann, was a master in Hopkinson's. In 
1922, the upper school was moved from 100 Beacon Street to its 
present extensive grounds in Dedham, Mass., formerly the Nickerson 
Estate of over a hundred acres, bordering the Charles River. 



[ 7 ] 



Gerrit Smith Miller, eldest son of Charles Dudley and Elizabeth 
(Smith) Miller, was born at Cazenovia, New York, January 30, 1845. 

His grandfather was Gerrit Smith, the able, public-spirited citizen, 
reformer and abolitionist of Peterboro, N. Y. From him he inherited 
those forceful characteristics, with strength of mind and body, which 
have made him a marked man in every department of life in which he 
has interested himself. His almost eighty years have been spent on 
the ancestral farm in Central New York, bought from the Indians by 
his great-grandfather, Peter Smith, a native of Holland, for whom 
Peterboro and Smithfield were named. 

As a boy. Miller showed those qualities of leadership and organ- 
ization which have made all his undertakings not only successful, but 
of great benefit to others. In athletics, in which he excelled even as a 
small boy, every organization which he captained won championships. 
"He has," as one of his old friends said, "an athletic brain." He 
was educated in private schools in New Jersey, and spent five years, 
from his fifteenth, at Mr. Dixwell's school from which he entered 
Harvard in 1865. He also showed at this period qualities of bravery 
and self sacrifice, as will be seen from this letter received by him 
during his last year at school: 

Boston, March 23, 1865 

Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Boston. 
My young friend: 

I take great pleasure in handing you herewith, a Bronze Medal of 
the "Humane Society of Massachusetts," awarded to you by the 
Trustees as a small token of their appreciation of your judicious 
services in rescuing Master W. H. Horton, Jr., from peril, on the 4th, 
ultimo. 

I am 

Very faithfully 

Your friend and servant, 

R. B. Forbes 
Ch. of Standing Committee. 

This boy was rescued from Fresh Pond, in February, 1865. 

Being obliged, on account of illness, to leave college in 1866, 
Miller was given charge of his grandfather's farm in Peterboro. 

[ 8 ] 



A life-long friend and team-mate, James D'Wolf Lovett, has 
written an account of Miller's outdoor activities, which follows this 
article. While his athletic career was unusual. Miller's life since he 
left college has been equally notable. 

In studying the question of milk supply, which had interested him 
for some years, he decided, in 1869, to import Holstein Cattle from 
Holland. His several importations, which covered a period of ten 
years, for his Kriemhild herd*, have proved to be of the greatest benefit 
to the farmers of the United States and to the cattle industry. 

When the first importation arrived, black and white cattle were 
rarely seen on our farms. In the spring of 1870, the first calf dropped 
on his farm was " Agoo" — the first cow to be recorded in the Holstein 
Herd Book. Now there are nearly two million animals registered in 
the Herd Books of the United States and Canada. Every cow which 
has produced one thousand pounds of butter in one year, traces back 
twice to Miller's herd and most cows many more times. The cows now 
holding the world's record for milk in one year (37381.40 lbs.) and for 
butter in one year (1686.5 lbs.) both trace back to the Kriemhild 
herd which is the recognized basis of the Holstein industry of the 
country. 

By experiments and exhaustive study, he proved that the Holstein 
cow excels those of all other breeds in the amount of milk, butter, 
cheese, and beef products, for every pound of food consumed. In 
1880, when he represented Madison County in the New York As- 
sembly, he introduced the bill to incorporate the Holstein Breeders' 
Association of America, of which he was president for that year. 

The Holstein Fresian Register of a recent issue states editorially: 
**The Black-and- White breed of dairy cattle producing 76 per cent 
of the Nation's Milk Supply, is a factor to be reckoned with in 
solving the great economic problem." "Milk is the most important 
agricultural product of New York State." 

In 1867 Miller married, at Cambridge, Mass., Susan Hunt Dix- 
well, daughter of Epes Sargent and Mary Ingersoll (Bowditch) Dix- 
well. 

As one of the leading citizens of Central New York, Miller has 
from early manhood not only filled positions of responsibility in his 

*" Kriemhild Herd", a chapter in Holstein History by Frank N. Decker, 75 pp. 
quarto fully illustrated, Syracuse, N. Y., 1923. Published by the author. 



[ 9 ] 



town, county and State, but has also shown his inherited public spirit 
and philanthropy in many ways, notably, by his continued interest 
in the "George Junior Republic" from its foundation in 1895, at 
Freeville, N. Y., by William R. George. For ten years he was a trustee. 
And both Mr. and Mrs. Miller spent much of their time during these 
years at Freeville, helping to put the Republic on a firm basis, not only 
by counsel, but by gifts of land and money as well, and by inducing 
many others to contribute. Part of his gift of land was given for a 
football field which has been named "The Miller Athletic Field". 

An officer of the George Junior RepubHc writes: "There is no 
one individual to whom the Republic is more indebted than to Mr. 
Miller." 

This sketch of Mr. Miller is simply an outline of his many 

activities as a farmer and public-spirited citizen, who has carried on the 
best traditions of his distinguished ancestry, and fulfilled the unusual 
promise of his youth. 

Robert Means Lawrence 



{Editor's Note: That the game of football may he the means of helping to promote Peace 
is suggested by the following quotation from a December, 1923, number of " Time'\ 
a new weekly news-magazine.) 

A NEW ENTENTE 

"We are glad to meet you in sport and forget politics," said the German captain. 
"Sport makes brothers of us all," warmly responded the French captain. 

The occasion was a football game between German and French civilians. Both 
teams evinced great sportsmanship and there was no unusually rough play. The 
French won the match 5-0, their team being faster and cleverer than the Germans, 
who were heavy and powerful. After the match the two teams exchanged hearty 
"hoch's" and "viva's". 

Said the German captain: "I wish the representatives of German athletic 
clubs had been permitted to compete in the 1924 Olympic games in Paris. It would 
have done more to bring the countries together than all the conferences in the world." 

Another match was arranged for Christmas Day at Coblenz. 



[ 10 1 



John P. Hopkimson '61 Epes Sargent Dixwell '27 Arthur L. K. Volkmann, Cor. '78 

George W. C. Noble '58 
James J. Greenough '82 

THE FIVE MASTERS 



THE MILLER HOMESTEAD, PETERBORO, NEW YORK 




THE BRONZE TABLET IN HONOR OF MR. MILLER 

SUGGESTED BY THE "ELLIS" TABLET AT RUGBY 



HISTORY OF RUGBY FOOTBALL IN 

ENGLAND 



[Mr. Bussy, the acknowledged Football expert, mentioned in 
the preceding article, has kindly prepared for tis the following.] 

Every game, in which a ball or any other form of missile has its 
place, defies the historian who tries to find its origin — it began to take 
shape, probably, on the day on which man first discovered the charm 
that there is in throwing pebbles. But at least it is known that, in 
one form or another, football has been played in England since the days 
when the Danes were the traditional enemies of the people; and there 
are still parts of the country where, on Shrove Tuesday — though no- 
body can say why Shrove Tuesday should be the favored day — towns 
divide themselves into rival parties each of which fights fiercely to 
drive a ball across the particular piece of boundary which the other is 
defending. Nobody cares who wins, or what damage is done; the 
police look on helplessly; and many people are hauled before the local 
magistrates on the following morning and pay their fines cheerfully, 
proud in the knowledge that they have assisted in maintaining a 
custom hallowed by its antiquity. 

It is beyond all doubt that in these local struggles both American 
and English football had their origin. So far back as the fourteenth 
century the game had come to be known by the name which it now 
bears, and had been banned by statute as a formidable counter- 
attraction to archery, on which the military efficiency of the country 
depended; and the inevitable result was to increase its popularity. 
King after King repeated the prohibition, but the game continued to 
grow in popular favour. There were no rules, and no restrictions; and 
James I was probably right in maintaining that football was " meeter 
for laming than for making able the users thereof." Out of this chaos, 
however, order gradually evolved; and it was the old, historic schools, 
each of them conservative with regard to its own particular customs 
and traditions, which gave the game form, and method, and developed 
it from what the Puritan Stubbes called ''a friendlie kinde of fyghte" 



[ 13 ] 



into a sport which has spread into every continent and has fostered, 
wherever it has gone, that sporting spirit which contributes so much to 
international understanding and amity. 

By a very natural process the way in which the game should be 
played came to be dictated, more or less, by the size and shape of the 
playing-field in each school, and so for a long time there was no uni- 
formity. Where the surface was hard and the limits narrow the use of 
the hands came to be discouraged, as a means of robbing the sport of 
some of that roughness which was likely to result in "casualties"; and, 
on the other hand, in the schools which had acres of ground covered 
with turf centuries-old, roughness was tolerated, if not encouraged. 
The school which was best provided in this respect was Rugby; and 
there, from time immemorial, the game was played between teams 
often of a hundred or a hundred and fifty a-side, with every variety of 
violence, but with a general understanding that no player must pick 
up the ball and run with it. This understanding received its death 
sentence, however, in 1823, when a small boy named William Webb 
Ellis, who afterwards became a London clergyman and rector of the 
historic church of St. Clement Dane's, in the Strand, as a tablet on the 
wall of the school playing-field now records, "with a fine disregard for 
the rules of football as played in his time," first "took the ball in his 
arms and ran with it." For some years the innovation was frowned 
upon; but in time the possibilities which it opened up came to be 
recognized and appreciated, and what the English football reporter 
loves to describe as "the handling code" came to be adopted and 
organized at Rugby School. 

This, however, brought uniformity no nearer. Other ancient 
schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Winchester, and Westminster, had 
games of their own which most of them, though they now play Rugby 
or Association football as well, still practice; and there was no possi- 
bility of matches between school teams, or teams of their "old boys," 
because the rules were so various. It was not until 1863 that any 
effort was made to remove this difficulty; but then the leading London 
clubs which had come into existence in the course of the previous 
five years — the famous Blacheath Club, which is both the greatest 
and the oldest of them, came into being in 1858, and the Richmond 
Club a year later — met in the hope of agreeing upon a uniform code of 
rules. They failed; but out of their meeting sprang two codes — that 

[ 14 ] 



of the Rugby Union, which is close akin to the football played in 
America; and that of the Football Association, which still forbids the 
use of the hands. 

The Rugby game developed more slowly than its rival. For a 
long time the value of combination was ignored, and the prevalence of 
purely individual play hindered the development of what are now 
recognized as the finer points of the game. It was Oxford University, 
under the leadership of the famous Harry Vassall, which made a 
science of forward play in the scrummage; and Wales first showed us 
what can be done by clever and methodical co-operation by the men 
behind the scrummage. Scotland, which has few and comparatively 
young schools to draw upon, and consequently has little dissimilarity 
of styles to overcome, soon became strong at all points of the game. 
The Irish showed themselves brilliant but erratic and inconsistent 
players, in some years carrying all before them and in others being 
hopelessly weak. And recently France has taken very kindly to the 
game, and has now become a serious rival to the countries which 
taught her what football is like. On November 1, 1923, a date selected 
as possibly corresponding to that on which Webb Ellis, at Rugby 
School, showed a sublime disregard for convention and brought a 
great game into being a hundred years earlier — a unique international 
match was played on the ground on which he performed his memorable 
feat. England and Scotland joined forces to play Wales and Ireland. 
The French Rugby Federation was officially represented among the 
spectators; several old players were looking on, who, in 1871, took 
part in the first match, of twenty a-side, between England and Scot- 
land ; and the quality for the play was a revelation to those of them who 
had seen little football in recent years. 

The game in the British Isles is both better played and more 
popular now than it has ever been in the past, and as it is rapidly win- 
ning over even those schools which hitherto have considered it too 
strenuous for players who have not yet reached physical maturity, the 
result must be that players will become both more numerous and more 
skilful in the near future, and that clubs must increase and multiply. 
The game, in fact, after a hundred years of existence, is more full of 
life than it has ever been; and its prospects are very bright indeed. 

Editor's Note: It is an interesting, but little known fact, that the Rugby game 
is now a leading sport in the Argentine and other parts of South America. 



[ IS ] 



GERRIT SMITH MILLER 



HIS ATHLETIC CAREER 

In October, 1860, a handsome, husky-looking lad of fifteen, 
entered the Private Latin School, located at number twenty, Boylston 
Place, Boston. 

The school was kept by Mr. Epes Sargent Dixwell. He founded it 
in 1851, at number two Boylston Place, but about 1853, built number 
twenty, specially for the purpose and there he carried on his school 
until his retirement, in 1872. 

Mr. Dixwell expressed to the father who accompanied the lad, 
some doubts as to the advisability of leaving a boy of that age, fresh 
from a small country village, alone in a big city, left to his own devices 
where he knew no one to whom he could turn. 

The father's reply was — "My son is a good boy, one who can 
be trusted to take care of himself, and as for friends, he will make them 
anywhere." 

A few weeks later, Mr. Dixwell, in writing to the father, said — 
"You were right about your son. He is a good boy and, after seeing 
him play in a game of football with boys bigger than himself, I am 
convinced that he can take care of himself, and he has made plenty of 
friends." 

In the meantime the lad had borne, with great good-nature, the 
various petty troubles common to all "new boys." Once, however, 
one of the older pupils being misled into thinking that his quiet, 
peaceable attitude betokened a lack of pluck, attempted to bully him 
a bit. What followed reminds one of the old story of the man who 
undertook to give a dose of sulphur to his horse by blowing the powder 
down his throat, through a tube. The man was just about to blow 
when, by the fraction of a second, the horse coughed first! 

Every decent member of the school soon recognized the fact that 
a manly, clean and wholesome boy had come among them, and close, 
lasting friendships quickly followed. 

This boy was Gerrit Smith Miller, of Peterboro, N. Y., and we, his 
old friends, who were with him in those school days and have loved him 



[ 16 ] 



ever since, take pleasure in writing something of the boy who won, by 
some magic, not only our love and admiration then, but who, by a rare 
and beautifully consistent, unselfish and useful life of nearly eighty 
years, can still count on our same old-time loyalty undimmed by the 
passing years. 

Surely, such a man has passed, with flying colors, the acid test of 
friendship in its truest and noblest sense and it is a delight for us silver- 
thatched old boys who have loved him so long, to live over again a few 
of the deeds achieved under his leadership, to renew our allegiance to 
him and do him honor in these last remaining years, when the falling 
shadows are lengthening. 

The question may well be asked of what the "magic," just alluded 
to, consisted? It seems to us that, put into a few words, it was his 
splendid honesty, love of truth and uncompromising justice, together 
with an innate antipathy for anything mean, sordid and base. It 
might be said of Miller as was said of the Duke of Wellington, "He 
stands four square to all the winds that blow." With these words in 
mind, a few facts concerning Miller's early years of athleticism will 
appeal to all red-blooded boys and prove to be, let us hope, an inspira- 
tion, remembering always that the motto which he adopted and lived 
up to was: — "Defeat with Honor Is Better Than Victory with 
Dishonor." 

The two favorite outdoor sports of Gerrit Miller, or "Gat," as 
he is familiarly called, were Baseball and Football, and these being 
played by him side by side, in the same decade, will be considered 
separately in order to avoid confusion of dates. 

BASEBALL 

In 1859, when but fourteen years old, Miller organized the 
" BoboHnk B. B. C.," of Peterboro, N. Y. They elected him President, 
Captain and Pitcher and under him easily beat their rival, the "Young 
Americas," of Canastota, N. Y. 

In October, 1860, he entered Mr. Dixwell's school, as has been 
noted, to prepare for Harvard, where he was admitted in 1865, Class 
of '69. 

In 1861, he joined the Lowell B. B. C. of Boston, then just or- 
ganized, of which he was elected Captain and Pitcher. Later he held 
the office of President for four consecutive years. He led this team to 

[ 17 1 



victory in their first match, played in Medford, in 1862. The next 
season they whipped the Tri-Mountains, of Boston, all older players, 
by the remarkable score of thirty-seven to one. 

1864 saw the Lowells the Champions of New England. 

In 1865, Miller then being a Freshman at Harvard and on the 
"Varsity Nine," would naturally have played with them against the 
Lowells, in a match for the Silver Ball, scheduled for September 
thirtieth. But Miller, declining to play against his old team-mates, 
was accorded the compliment of being unanimously chosen to umpire 
this match. It was a well-merited tribute to his well-known judgment 
and probity. 

Party feeling was running high at this time and the post of um- 
piring this match was a weighty responsibility for him. Miller, however, 
fulfilled the onerous duties perfectly and, although the Lowells won, 
no decision was questioned during the match. And instead of being 
pitched into by some disgruntled player, or hearing every close de- 
cision greeted with cries from the "bleachers" of "Kill 'im" (both 
pleasantries now so common). Miller was cheered by both teams at the 
end of the match. 

While he was still on the Harvard nine, a game was played be- 
tween them and the Champion Atlantics, of Brooklyn, N. Y., the 
strongest batters in the country. The latter had knocked out thirty 
runs in the first six innings and Miller was sent in to pitch on the 
seventh. In the next three innings, not a runner crossed the home 
plate! A noteworthy feat. 

The late James Barr Ames, afterwards Dean of the Harvard Law 
School, caught for Miller in these three innings. This was in 1866. 

In this same year, having resigned from college owing to ill health, 
Miller went home to Peterboro, to manage the extensive farm owned 
by the Hon. Gerrit Smith, his grandfather, and also to become familiar 
with the latter's large business interests in Oswego, N. Y. While there, 
he joined the Ontario B. B. C, of Oswego, was made Captain and 
Pitcher and won for them the championship of the city and county 
of Oswego. 

In October, 1867, the Lowells, of Boston, once again, and for the 
last time, had his welcome support in a game with the Champion 
Excelsiors, of Brooklyn N. Y., on Boston Common. The Excelsiors 

[ 18 ] 



had for pitcher, the famous Arthur Cummings, the originator of the 
curved ball.* 

The Lowells, with Miller in the pitcher's box, won this game, thus 
gaining the distinction of winning the first victory ever achieved by a 
Massachusetts team over one of the old New York Champions. 

This, in brief, is the bare outline of Gat Miller's baseball career, 
but it serves to show the calibre of the youth, his tireless efforts to 
improve the morale of the game as well as his skill and rare stamina. 

At various times he has pitched two full games in the same day 
with no apparent signs of undue fatigue. He ever preferred a close 
contest and, in an uphill game, his steadiness maintained the morale 
of the players and often pulled them through to victory. 

FOOTBALL 

At the time Miller entered Mr. Dixwell's school there were fifty- 
five pupils enrolled, and football was of course played at recess as well 
as at other times, but simply as a matter of fun and exercise, and also 
as a safety valve for surplus steam. 

He was at once put on the football team and in that same fall 
(1860) they played the Boston Latin School and beat them. 

On June 5, 1862, they again played the same school. But this 
time they met a team picked from the first and second classes only, 
with the exception of two boys belonging in the third class — Jack 
Oviatt and Jim Lovett. This turned out to be a famous match and the 
most stubbornly fought one ever played in those days, and so far as 
known, the longest ever played anywhere. For two hours and forty- 
seven minutes the contestants were in constant action, except when the 
ball went out of bounds when it was at once brought back and put in 
play again. 

Usually, matches were decided by the best two out of three games, 
but in this one, the Dixwell boys — reasoning that although their op- 
ponents were the older and heavier, felt themselves to be the better 
trained and felt that probably, in a long fight, they might wear them 
down — proposed to make the match three games out of five which, 
luckily for the Latins, they accepted. 

*Cummings was not the discoverer of the curve. The fact that a ball, in long 
distance throwing, describes a very decided curve, had been well known for many years, 
both by baseball players and cricketers, but it was never thought of as possessing 
any practical value until Cummings utilized it in his pitching. 

[ 19 ] 



There was a brisk breeze blowing and Dixwell, winning the toss, 
chose the side with the wind, thus giving the Latins the kick-off. 

Both teams quickly closed in, fighting fiercely, and Dixwell won in 
fifteen minutes. As no intermissions were allowed, one game followed 
another in rapid succession, so that the test was one of endurance as 
well as skill. 

In the second game, the Latin boys woke up a bit but, even with 
the wind at their backs, it took them forty minutes to land the ball 
past Dixwell's goal. The third game was won by Dixwell in twenty 
minutes and if the match had been two out of three, it would have been 
theirs then and there. The Latin School won the fourth game but, in 
spite of again having the wind at their backs, it required forty-five 
minutes to do the trick. 

The match now stood two all and excitement was at fever heat, 
presenting a vest-pocket edition of a Harvard-Yale game, in the 
Stadium, two generations later. 

The fifth and deciding game was at once called and as, by this 
time, the wind had subsided, both teams were on an equal footing. At 
last after forty-seven gruelling minutes, the Latin School won the 
game and match. 

This famous match was replete with thrilHng incidents. The 
Latin School players included such men as Tom and Bill Blaikie;* 
Sam Frothingham who was a superb specimen of blended strength 
and manly beauty, and his brother Donald; Tom Nelson, one of the 
most powerful of all strong men who ever entered Harvard ; Ned Fenno ; 
Jim Lovett; et al. While on Dixwell's team were Charlie McBurney 
(Captain), Gat Miller, Ned Arnold, Bob Peabody, Fred Shattuck, 
Bob Boit, Cliff Watson, et al. — a goodly array of names well known in 
the records of Field and Water Sports as well as in the Professional World . 

In one of the many scrimmages in this match. Miller, playing 
fullback, tackled Bill Blaikie who had possession of the ball. Both 
were thrown heavily. Instantly as many players as could find lodg- 
ment, gladly piled on top of them. Miller, as they went down, had 
grabbed under each of his arms Bill's big back muscles, at the same 
time that two Latin boys each gripped a leg of Miller and tried to pull 
him out of the conglomeration. Bill yelled for Miller to loose his hold 

*Bill Blaikie, while still under twenty, could, with his hands alone, lift a dead weight 
of sixteen hundred pounds. This he did repeatedly at the old Tremont Gymnasium. 



[ 20 ] 




^1' 




AT 18 




Standing: Scudder, Arnold, Peabody. Seated: Bowditch, Lovett, Lawrence. Insert: Miller, Capt. 



THE SEVEN MEMBERS OF THE ONEIDA FOOTBALL TEAM 



LIVING NOVEMBER 7, 1923 
THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TEAM'S MOST FAMOUS GAME 

1863 — 1923 



as, among them all, they'd pull him apart! Miller's reply, with 
clenched teeth, was that no two Latin School boys were going to pull 
him away as long as his grip held — and it held! Somehow, however, 
they were pried apart and here the game was delayed a while until the 
cramps were rubbed out of the legs of Bob Peabody and Tom Nelson. 

During the summer of 1862, Miller's cogitations and executive 
ability, got to work and bore fruit. He saw that football, in order to 
come to its best, must, above all things, be organized. He knew also 
that in Dixwell's School, a nucleus existed which, if added to by picked 
players from outside sources, could be moulded into a very strong 
team. To this end then, he strived and in that fall (1862) formally 
organized the "Oneida Football Club of Boston." 

The name was suggested by R. CHfford Watson, after the beauti- 
ful lake of that name in New York State, not far from Miller's home. 

The team was composed of twelve Dixwell boys: Edward L. 
Arnold, Robert A. Boit, Edward Bowditch, Walter Brooks, George 
Davis, Robert M. Lawrence, Gerrit S. Miller (Captain), Francis G. 
Peabody, Wlnthrop S. Scudder, Louis Thies, Alanson Tucker, R. 
Clifford Watson, Huntington F. Wolcott; two from the Boston English 
High School, J. Malcolm Forbes and John P. Hall; and one, J. D'W. 
Lovett, from the Boston Public Latin School. This club, of which 
Miller was elected president and Clifford Watson secretary and 
treasurer, is believed to be the first exponent, of which there is any 
record, of organized football. Their only uniform was a red silk 
handkerchief tied around the head, knotted behind. 

In the two seasons of 1862 and 1863, the Oneidas played matches 
with the Boston Latin and the English High and one with the com- 
bined teams of the Roxbury and Dorchester High Schools, all of 
which they won. 

The most stubbornly contested match the Oneidas ever played, 
was on November seventh, 1863, against the combined forces of the 
EngHsh High and Boston PubHc Latin Schools. In this match, the 
Oneidas allowed their opponents sixteen men, they, themselves, play- 
ing their usual fifteen. Mac Forbes, the extra man, one of the best 
players in the Oneidas, was loaned to them to captain their side but, 
in spite of this handicap in the number of men, the Allies were beaten 
in three straight games. It is a fact that, in the history of the Club, 
the Oneida's goal was never crossed. 



[ 23 ] 



The nearest approach to it was in one of these three games and the 
incident seems worth mentioning. 

The ball had been driven past the Oneida's fullback and the game 
was in extreme peril. Ned Arnold, one of the Oneida's best players and 
probably the swiftest runner on either side, started for the ball, full 
jump, hotly pressed by a big, broad-shouldered, English High School 
boy, at least twenty pounds heavier and almost as fast as Arnold, who 
saw that if he lost the ball at this crisis, his opponent would kick the 
goal and win the game, and he also saw that to come to grips with so 
heavy a boy would be much too risky under the circumstances. 

Arnold's quick thinking and craftiness, in a pinch, were well known 
and the outcome of the race was awaited breathlessly. 

When about four yards from the ball, Ned slowed down a bit and 
the enemy grinned as he leaned forward to secure the grip of which he 
now felt certain. And then something happened. 

Like a flash, Arnold shot one heel into the turf, came to a dead 
stop, ducked, and crouching low, covered his head just as the big fellow 
came on, struck something, catapulted and landed six feet further on. * 
Whether, if submitted to modern tests, he could then have given his 
correct name or age, is open to doubt. Anyway, he sat quiet on the 
grass while Arnold trotted up to the ball and kicked it out of danger. 

Asked recently if he remembered the circumstance, Ned threw 
back his head, laughed and as he is only seventy-eight years old, said 
he recalled it perfectly. 

When we inquired how it felt when the bump came, his eyes 
twinkled as he said he thought the State House had hit him. 

The old rubber football, used in this match, after being appropri- 
ately inscribed, was treasured by Captain Miller for fifty-nine years 
together with his old red handkerchief. In 1922, he presented them 
to the "Boston Society for the Preservation of New England Antiqui- 
ties", where they now rest in their Museum, in the old Harrison 
Gray Otis House, on Cambridge Street, Boston. 

In 1864, J. Huntington Wolcott, older brother of Roger Wolcott 
afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, was elected President of the 
Oneida Club and in this same year, a challenge was sent to the Har- 
vard Freshmen, for a match. It was accepted, and notice of the date 
fixed for the game was to be sent at an early day. After waiting a 
long time, as the notice was not forthcoming, one of the Freshmen, an 



[ 24 ] 



active member of his class and who but yesterday had been on the 
Oneida team, was asked why the delay? He frankly admitted that the 
upper classes, fearing that a defeat would be scored against Harvard, 
had advised the Freshmen not to play. Thus the whole matter was, 
let us say, discreetly dropped and a possible famous fight fated to re- 
main unsung. 

This was the last of the four years of the Oneida Football Club's 
existence. 

While Miller was still at Mr. Dixwell's school, he, with many of 
his friends, attended the Tremont Gymnasium, on Eliot Street. 
Here his great natural strength was more fully developed. On his 
entering college, Molineaux, the colored instructor of boxing, the 
Sargent of that day, taking Miller's measurements, announced, among 
others: — "Chest, forty inches; Biceps, fifteen inches, jest." 

Our old friend could hold a fifty-pound dumbbell at arm's length. 
In one standing jump, with weights, he covered eleven feet, six inches, 
and, in three standing jumps, something over thirty-four feet — this 
before he was twenty. 

In Quoits, a sport which he still enjoys at nearly eighty, with two 
andahalf pound irons, pitched forty-five feet he has rarely met his match. 

Since his college days. Miller's life has been, with the exception of 
one term (1880) in the New York Assembly, devoted to carrying on 
his beautiful farm of more than six hundred acres, in Peterboro, raising 
thoroughbred, registered Holstein cattle which he introduced to that sec- 
tion of the country, and in managing the estates of his grandfather and 
mother. 

Here, in his own picturesque village, he lives revered, honored 
and loved by every man, woman and child. To those not so fortunate 
as to know him, we would say, in the simplest of words, that "he is 
a man who loves to go about doing good." 

One of his best loved recreations, which he has followed from 
boyhood, is trout fishing. With his eight-ounce, split bamboo rod, 
he still delights in visiting his favorite brooks "Cowasselon" (Indian 
for pretty squaw), " Whitestone," "Mungers," "Oneida Creek" and 
"Reynolds," and in renewing his youth there, in the open, where his 
life has been spent. 

James D'Wolf Lovett 



[ 25 ] 



THE UNVEILING EXERCISES 

[This account was written for the Noble and Greenough School Paper 

The Nobleman. \ 

Wednesday afternoon, November 7th, the day of the exercises in 
honor of Mr. Gerrit Smith Miller, was of great interest and moment 
to the School. When the plans for the exercises were first made, none of 
us knew who Mr. Miller was, nor why the School was to have a tablet 
in his honor. Our interest in him, however, was immediately aroused 
when we heard that he was the founder of the first organized football 
team in America — the old Oneida Football Club, founded in 1862. 
Still it was with a good deal of curiosity, rather than genuine interest, 
that we assembled in the big hall of the Main House with the guests 
who had been invited to attend the occasion. 

Mr. Wiggins, after welcoming the guests, read the following 
telegram from Mr. Miller: "Give my love to each one of the un- 
defeated Oneida Football team, and tell them the Tablet is in honor 
of us all." He told of Mr. Scudder's efforts and interest, which 
had made the presentation of the tablet possible, and then rehearsed 
the various links by which our school is, in the minds of the Dixwell 
alumni, the natural inheritor of that school's traditions. He then 
introduced Mr. Richardson, a familiar friend to us all, both as a 
graduate and as President of the Board of Trustees. 

Mr. Richardson, himself an athlete, who captained the winning 
Varsity crew of 1908, and a member of the Freshman crew which 
Mr. Wiggins captained to victory, told in brief outline the story of 
Gerrit Miller's school days and gave a clear picture of his integrity, 
his lovableness, and above all, of his love of sport for sport's sake. 
He held up for inspection two objects of interest, particularly to the 
schoolboys — one, the old spherical rubber football won by the 
Oneidas, November 7, 1863, bearing the names of the fifteen players, 
and the other object, the red silk handkerchief, the only uniform 
of the Oneida Club. They were Captain Miller's, and had been 
preserved all these sixty years. Mr. Miller's motto, "Defeat with 
honor is better than victory with dishonor," is one that we might 
each one of us adopt as our own, with great benefit. 

After Mr. Richardson's speech, the tablet to Mr. Miller and the 
portrait of him as a young man, were unveiled by Mr. Miller's grand- 

[ 26 ] 




International (c) 

BISHOP LAWRENCE BLESSING THE FLAG 

DR. CHARLES W. ELIOT TAKING PART IN THE CEREMONIES 



nieces, Martha and Susan Wigglesworth. Bishop Lawrence was next 
introduced. 

Once more the theme of the talk was Gerrit Miller, and through 
the eyes of Bishop Lawrence (who had been a younger boy when Miller 
was still in school) we saw a still more intimate picture of the boy and 
man who has been so much beloved. In telling of Miller's school days 
the Bishop spoke also of various of his contemporaries who, from every- 
day school boys grew to be eminent men. Edward Burgess, Henry 
Cabot Lodge, Huntington Wolcott an officer in the Civil War, and 
his brother, Roger Wolcott afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, 
were among the names that he mentioned. All of these men were 
keen, alert boys, who found time while giving their best to lessons 
and sports, to realize what line of thought or study interested them 
most, and to follow that line with keenness and enthusiasm. This, 
as the Bishop said, points a lesson to us all: that we must not be 
contented merely to accomplish our daily task passably well, but 
must keep our minds alert, awake, and open; look constantly forward, 
and realize that the manhood that we shall eventually attain depends 
largely upon the boyhood that we have now. 

The Bishop also told us of Mr. Miller's manhood, how it was not 
one of "success" as the average American looks at it, which means 
the success of adding more money to money already acquired, but was 
the success of the man who tries simply to carry out the injunction 
of the New Testament, to "Love thy neighbor as thyself." The 
story of his life was not a thrilling one until one looked closely and 
saw that this man has consistently worked for the benefit of others, 
rather than of himself, and has regarded his ample fortune simply as 
money which he held in trust to be used for the betterment of his 
fellow men. When one realized how the love which this boy had from 
his mates in school, has increased and deepened as the years have 
passed, one knows that here has been a life well spent. The Bishop 
closed his address by calling on "Jim" Lovett, "Bob" Lawrence, 
"Win" Scudder, "Frank" Peabody, and "Ned" Arnold, all Oneida 
boys, to stand up one by one. And surely never were cheers more 
enthusiastically given than those for these five fine old gentlemen. 

The school, which was greatly honored by the presence of Bishop 
Lawrence, was equally honored by that of President Eliot, whom 



[ 29 ] 



Mr. Wiggins introduced after a short interval of Harvard songs sung 
by the assembled school. 

Dr. Eliot spoke first of the importance of reading the Bible, both 
from the stand-point of beautiful language, and mental and spiritual 
benefit. He spoke about Mr. Dixwell as Headmaster of the Boston 
Public Latin School where he was a pupil from 1844-1849. He said: 
''In the school year 1848-1849 Charles W. Eliot, aged fourteen, had 
a desk in Mr. Dixwell's room. Mr. Dixwell opened school in that 
room every morning by reading the Bible and reading or making a 
short prayer. One morning he read solemnly the first chapter of 
Genesis, then closed the book, and said, 'In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth. That, boys, is the most sublime sentence 
in the English language.' This remark went straight home in the 
boy Eliot's mind, and he has never forgotten it." He then spoke 
of the influence that one character has upon another, citing as an 
example the love and admiration that these men of nearly eighty 
years feel for their comrade of sixty odd years ago. From this he 
drew a lesson, pointing out that we, each of us, were unconsciously 
influencing our friends and comrades for good or ill and urging us to 
try our best to improve ourselves, and become an influence for good. 

He then told of having often been asked to define the spirit of 
Harvard, which he did in the following beautiful words: "It is the 
spirit of service to one's fellow-beings, to one's city, one's state and 
one's Nation : it is the doing of good as best one can, with an unselfish 
spirit that does not think of personal advancement." 

At the close of Dr. Eliot's address, the school, led by Felton, 
cheered the various guests of honor, including the seven living members 
of the original Oneida team: Captain Miller, Arnold, Bowditch, 
Lawrence, Lovett, Peabody, and Scudder, five of whom we were very 
proud to have with us. And finally, as Mr. Wiggins read a cable of 
greetings and congratulations from Rugby School, the cradle of 
organized football in England, the exercises were concluded with a 
"Regular Cheer" for Rugby. Before the Company separated a 
Round Robin to Mr. Miller ("Organized football is honored by having 
Gerrit Smith Miller as its Founder — 1863-1923") was signed by 
seventy-five of those present, including the Captains of the School 
Athletic Teams. 

Laura Elizabeth Wiggins 



[ 30 ] 



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